“[H]ow many times was he shot?” Jackson asked on MSNBC, in a series of rhetorical questions about Brown. “And where was he shot? And why was he lying in the street for several hours? That was kind of a state execution.”

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He went on to link Brown’s killing with other incidents of unarmed black men killed by police, including 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012 and 22-year-old Oscar Grant in California in 2009. “There’s a pattern of this behavior.”

Jackson called for a White House policy aimed to combat problems that plague black urban communities. In a USA Today op-ed published earlier this week, he argued that the urban middle class like that in Ferguson is “under economic assault.”

He also offered praise for State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, whom Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon dispatched to take over security operations in Ferguson. “I really want to say Capt. Ron Johnson has made himself eligible to be the next police chief of Ferguson,” Jackson said. “He has handled himself in such a way that he has brought calm to a very chaotic situation.”

On Thursday evening, Johnson was seen marching with protesters and embracing some in hugs, a marked contrast from the night prior when St. Louis County police forces used tear gas and had armored vehicles, riot gear and sniper rifles.